Tag Archives: written agreements

Jane, Mary, and Alice have a thriving business. They decided to operate as an LLC and handled the formation themselves by filing a certificate of formation with the Texas Secretary of State.

Everything was fine until Alice got divorced, and her ex was assigned half her membership shares.

Who’d have known their company shares were community property!

Now, the ex is making life miserable by demanding to see the books, demanding distributions, and threatening to sue. What a mess: a mess that was avoidable. Had they adopted a company agreement, the owners could have managed what happened to the company shares in divorce.

A company agreement, also called an operating agreement, describes the way a limited liability company will do business. The company agreement governs the relations among members, managers, officers, and the company. Even a sole member LLC can, and should, adopt a company agreement. Here are a few reasons why.

Retaining control. A company agreement allows the members to determine how the company is governed and what happens to membership shares if a member dies, divorces, files for bankruptcy, or just wants out. These kinds of events can erode members’ control over the business. It is best to deal with these contingencies before they happen. A company agreement does that.

If you don’t have a company agreement, the State of Texas will set the operating rules for your company through Chapter 101 of the Texas Business Organizations Code. Many of the Code provisions can be waived or modified to better suit your company.

With a company agreement, you can establish different classes of ownership. For example, a you may want to retain control of the company but give others a share in ownership. This can be accomplished by having two classes of membership: voting members and non-voting members. Without a company agreement, an LLC is limited to one class of membership.

A member of an LLC cannot withdraw or be expelled from the company unless you have a company agreement that describes a process for a member to withdraw or be expelled. In other words, if one member wants to leave, or if members want to kick out a non-performing member, you can’t do it unless you have a company agreement.

A company agreement can limit assignment of interests. What if a member gets into financial trouble and wants to pledge membership shares as collateral for a loan? If the member defaults on loan payments, you may up with a business partner you never intended to have.

A company agreement can describe the relationship between members and managers. While the certificate of formation states whether an LLC is managed by its members or managers, there is no guidance or restrictions on managers without a company agreement.

A company agreement can expand or limit the duties, responsibilities, and liability of members, managers, and officers. Many members are shocked that Texas law does not impose a fiduciary duty between them. A fiduciary duty is a duty of loyalty to act in the best interest of another. If you want members to owe a heightened duty to one another or to the company, you must have a company agreement.

Having a well-drafted company agreement saves money in the long run. By fully describing expectations in a company agreement, members have a means of resolving disputes without resorting to litigation. The initial investment in legal fees for drafting a solid company agreement is tiny compared to the cost of arbitration or litigation.

A company agreement is a valuable tool that allows LLC owners to control the destiny of their company and to manage relationships between themselves, their managers, and their officers.

They can expand or limit responsibilities and liability as they see fit.

Adopting a company agreement early can be a cost saving strategy that staves off expensive problems later, and the agreement can be modified as the company grows. It is critical to use an attorney to draft a company agreement, but it is money well spent.

A contract is no good if it isn’t enforceable. To be enforceable, a contract must be made by people who are legally able to make a contract (generally, adults who understand what they are doing), must have a lawful purpose, and must have an offer, acceptance, and consideration.

An offer is exactly what it sounds like – a promise to do something if the other person will do something else. Acceptance means both parties agree to hold up their end of the bargain. Consideration is payment. Consideration can be money, a promise, an action.

The Texas Comptroller’s Office has a handout that describes the legal elements of a binding contract:

Every profitable business is a complex web of relationships. Think about it. Common relationships on which a thriving business is based include:

Customer-Supplier

Co-Owners (shareholders, partners, members)

Employer-Employee

Supervisor-Supervisee

Owner-Management

Business-Regulators (taxing authorities, licensing boards)

Landlord-Tenant

Networking partners

Of course, there are more. On the most basic level, a business cannot exist without customers, and a business will not last long without strong customer relationships. Every profitable business is built on a web of thriving relationships. Relationships are strong when everyone is on the same page, expectations are clear and realistic, and the parties trust each other to do what each has agreed to do.

Relationships deteriorate when everyone is not on the same page, expectations are ambiguous or unrealistic, or someone fails to keep a promise. Many times, misunderstandings between parties cause or contribute to the deterioration of otherwise healthy relationships. Misunderstandings happen for a number of reasons – many of which are avoidable. A common cause of misunderstanding is the failure to accurately describe a task to be performed.Who will do what by when, and how will it be done?

Details may be assumed differently by various parties when the details are not written down. For example, John hires Dan to paint a wall. The two negotiate a price and a time for completion. Dan paints the wall. John refuses to pay full price because Dan did not prime the wall before painting it. A critical item was not discussed. Dan assumed the wall did not need priming because it was not discussed. John assumed that any painter would prime the wall first. Now, everyone is dissatisfied.

Had the two written down the terms of their agreement, they may have uncovered the missing information in time to clarify and correct. This example uses a very simple agreement. In reality, the more complicated an agreement is, the more terms and details are needed, and the more steps toward completion of each party’s agreed tasks, the more critical it is to write everything down.

Dan and John did not need a lawyer or fancy language to write their agreement. Their agreement could have been in the form of a work order signed by both of them. It seems obvious that a written agreement would have helped them avoid conflict and would have led to a better working relationship. So, why do we resist writing things down? My next post will explore our propensity to rely on a handshake over pen and paper.

The question actually raises questions: how are you going to prove you have an oral contract? Will the breaching party admit the to making the contract? Not likely. Do you have notes, emails, texts, anything in writing? Are there witnesses to the conversation? If so, are they reliable? If not, have the parties started performing?

And the questions go on and on trying to build a trail of reliable, admissible evidence to prove up the oral agreement. One must also ask, is attempting to enforce the verbal agreement in court going to be cost effective?

Of course, that depends on the agreement. It likely is not cost effective to file a lawsuit over a low value agreement, but may well be worth the time, money, and effort to enforce a high value contract. There are avenues to try before filing a lawsuit.

Sometimes, a written demand for performance does the trick. Mediation is also a less costly alternative to a lawsuit if the other side is willing to participate. Most people who ask me the question realize it would have been easier to have reduced the agreement to writing.

Thus, this series was born. I’m calling it “Writing It Down.” This series of posts will explore using simple written agreements to support small businesses.

It’s a fact that many small business ventures fail in their first year. There are tons of resources on the web about why so many new businesses fail, and I won’t attempt to recreate them here. However, I’ve noticed five things that many failed businesses have in common. The purpose of this post is to help you avoid these shortcomings when starting your business. Here they are in a nutshell: